Lyra,

Hope you didn't worry me? Honestly, how could I not worry when right after you left supposedly a filth monster had attacked? (From what Savaris-san said at least). You really need to get into the habit of writing as soon as you get there. Oh well… I guess it's fine now. At least you made it there safely and I'm happy that you are having a good time.

I received a letter from Layfon a couple days ago. Unlike you, he always keeps me up to date with everything that is going on and does not slack off on it.

*Ahem*

He was telling me how surprised yet happy he was that you had come and explained all that you two had been doing. To think you'd run into Layfon there and be in the same platoon. Must be the higher powers, knowing it was not smart to put you on opposing teams with how you two could be. At least you aren't lonely. Make sure to keep him in check for me and that he doesn't cause any problems.

The orphanage is still full of noise and life. Father has left the dojo, but he's not teaching the kids at the orphanage; he's gone to teach in a real dojo. It's hard work to manage a dojo in Grendan, but people living nearby have enrolled, so we're making money. We plan to apply for government funding, so don't worry too much about the situation here. We're not getting as much money as we were when you and Layfon were helping here, but I think we can manage.

So how are you doing over there? Are you sick? Have you been eating well? I'm worried. You never pay much attention to the nutrients in your diet. It was thanks to father that you were eating healthy. I might have to tell Layfon to watch your diet, but then again, I don't know if he even watches his own diet.

Well I have to go now. I have this huge essay to write. I don't know what to write though. It's so difficult, how did you do this? Then again… you weren't that great either.

Bye!

Leerin

P.S. I expect you to write back quicker! If Layfon can do it then so can you!

P.P.S. I told Savaris-san what you said. All he did was scoff and waved it off saying that you owe him now. So you better be careful.

Lyra sighed looking at the letter. She actually wrote out 'Ahem'. Leave it to Leerin to make sure that Lyra understood her exact thought. Lyra couldn't help but smile at the last part. Leave it Leerin to scold her. Even in a letters Leerin would still scold her. She had always been like that. Out of the three, Leerin was the most… sensible one could say, constantly nagging at themlike a mother. Lyra was the hyper one that always brought a smile, and Layfon was Layfon, always back there, constantly busy helping.

Lyra continued on to the next part of the letter. She had to agree. It was ironic that the two were in the same platoon, especially since that was not Layfon's intention when coming to Zuellini. Although, the president was very pushy, Lyra noticed. Quite possible he pulled some strings.

She then frowned reading the last paragraph. Not that great? Of course leave it to Leerin to worry about how they're eating. Honestly, that girl was worrying too much. She also went on to criticize Lyra's essays. Then again, those weren't that great. Leerin was right about that.

Lyra just sighed folding the paper up. Well Leerin, you might have to wait for the reply quicker part. She was in the locker rooms of the gym right now. Nina had managed to schedule a time for the team to use the training facilities and work on their teamwork. From what Lyra had seen so far, their teamwork wasn't that bad. Felli managed to warn everyone on time, Sharnid was helping out with the sniping, Lyra, Layfon, and Nina were good at fighting, so all in all, they were a pretty good team, but Nina disagreed. She said Lyra hadn't seen the team actually work. The platoon match was won by luck.

So now here Lyra sat waiting for the others. From how Nina acted, she hated people who were late, so Lyra did her best to come early. How ever she had come very early since no one was here.

The door opened and in stepped Harley.

"Hey Harley." Lyra waved.

Harley blinked, stopping in his tracks, "Hey there Lyra, you're here early."

Lyra just shrugged, "Well captain did say come early, so I came early." She replied.

"Oh, well just so you know, she says to come early, yet no one really does come early— minus, Layfon and herself of course."

Lyra smirked. That just left Sharnid and Felli. Of course she knew that Sharnid would come late. He had already been named the skipper and from what Harley had said earlier about him, it would have been a miracle if he came at all.

Felli on the other hand, Lyra did not know about. The girl was quiet and always made her own decision and went with that, not what others said. From what Layfon had told her, she was forced into the Military Arts so that explained why she didn't try her best. That supported Lyra's theory. It seemed he was just recruiting the strong ones to help with the city. It explained Lyra's scholarship.

"Oh well…" Harley sighed breaking into her thoughts, "It's a good thing you came early. I wanted to take a quick look at your Dite. Do you mind?" he asked.

"Oh not at all. Here you are." Lyra replied as she pulled out the white Dite, handing it to him.

"Thanks. I just need to see how it's holding out compared to your training." He explained as he walked over to where he had his computer and other things set up.

Lyra nodded watching him as he placed the Dite down and connected the wires up to it. After that, his computer turned on and numerous graphs appeared all showing the Dite's conditions.

Lyra blinked as she watched them all appear. She then got up and walked over to where he was reading them with a serious face.

"What is all that supposed to mean?" Lyra asked as she looked at the screen. Harley had been deep in his thoughts when he was reading the graphs, because he jumped when Lyra spoke.

"Oh sorry, well these are just showing the parts that have been stressed the most since you've used it.

Lyra nodded her head looking at the graphs. It showed a model of the Dite when restored and there were many spots that were red, indicating those areas were receiving the most stress.

"So… what do you plan on doing with it?" she asked. As Harley pulled up another graph which showed another view of the Dite.

"Well… right now nothing, because Nina should be here any minute now and that means I won't have time to work on it, but please try and be careful with the Dite. It's not going to break yet, but based on how you train today, it may start to crack." He asked in a begging voice.

Lyra smirked, "I thought you preferred us having issues with our Dites."

"Well... It's one thing when I have to do repairs, it's more work having to figure out a whole new Dite plus a setting for it, when there's nothing to go off of." He explained.

"Then why not save this data?" she offered.

Harley nodded his head, "That's what I'm doing right now, but still. From what Nina has said these next couple days are booked with training, so you may want to be careful so you have a weapon to fight with."

"Hmm… true…" Lyra nodded. Just then, they heard the door open, both Lyra and Harley looked up to see Layfon coming in. "Morning." He yawned."

"Hey Lay-Chan! About time you got here." Lyra grinned patting him on the back.

"Ow! Was that really necessary Lyra?" Layfon asked in protest.

"Oh that was nothing." Lyra replied shaking her head.

Layfon just sighed shaking his head, "So what are you guys doing?"

"Eh… Harley's looking at my Dite." Lyra replied, bored now.

"Really now," Layfon replied.

"Yup." Lyra replied with a nod.

"Where's Nina?" he asked, expecting the captain to appear from one of the stalls.

"Eh.. she's not here yet." Lyra replied looking at the watch. It was past the time they were supposed to be here.

"Hey morning everyone!" Another voice was heard. They all looked to see Sharnid coming in, "Wow… Nina's not here yet? Well looks like I'm saved." He remarked as he sat down on one of the benches.

"Well, you took your time." Lyra remarked.

"Yeah… I got caught up with some stuff." He replied.

"What kind of stuff?" Lyra asked, curious.

Sharnid just shrugged, "Meh… stuff."

Lyra's face fell. "I asked what kind?"

The door opened and in walked Felli. "Wow, even Felli-Chan is here before Nina. Now that's something." Sharnid remarked.

"Nina will be here shortly. She orders everyone to be prepared on the battlefield." Felli explained as she went to change.

"Well looks like I better do the same." Sharnid grunted as he stood up stretching, "be right back." He waved as he headed off to change.

Lyra sighed, bored again, "Where's Nina, I'm bored and I wanna get this started with." She groaned.

"Well Felli said she'd be here shortly." Layfon offered.

"Hey, Lyra, here's your Dite." Harley spoke up.

"Hmm?" Lyra looked at it before taking it, "Sweet thanks!" she grinned taking it.

"Just be careful with it." He asked.

"Don't worry it'll be fine." Lyra assured him.

Just then they saw Nina come in, "Well about time." Sharnid remarked as he and Felli had returned from changing and were now all waiting for Nina.

"Sorry for the wait." Nina apologized.

"Oh don't worry about it, it's not like we had anything else to do." Sharnid waved his hand, obviously meant as sarcasm, but Nina ignored it. She then turned to the rest, now, let's get going. We have a lot to do." She decided. The rest nodded their heads following.

"Felli can you tell us where the enemies lie?" Nina whispered. They were on the battlefield now. The training bots had been scattered throughout the area and were programmed to fight as if this was an actual platoon match. Nina had went with the usual plan where Felli was hidden scouting the area, Sharnid was in the trees sniping the enemy, and Nina, Layfon, and Lyra on the ground ready to fight. Lyra bit her lip waiting for Felli to reply. She had been gone for a couple minutes now. It made Lyra wonder if the communication device, which used Felli's psychokinesis, worked or not.

"Three responses at point 1005." Felli's faint voice finally sounded through Lyra's earpiece.

Lyra nodded her head, getting ready. Then without exchanging glances, she, Layfon, and Nina rushed out of the bushes. An arm smashed suddenly into the place where the three had been hiding, then a robot shaped like a barrel with a wooden knife fitted onto its wrist was spraying red paint everywhere.

"Too slow!" Nina called out to Felli as she retreated.

Lyra landed on the ground sliding back, she then ran after the machine that was hidden in sight. It was supposed to be that Lyra and Layfon would sneak around, hiding in the trees, but Lyra saw as Layfon moved out of the shadow of the trees to make himself a target so Nina could concentrate on her fight.

Lyra quickly glanced back to see if Nina was all right. Nina was doing fine. She had jumped away from an arm that had coming swinging at her from her left.

Just then Lyra heard a rustling noise. She turned towards the rustle but suddenly a bang was heard and a blue kei bullet went over her head, and hit the bot in the center causing it to blow up.

"Hey you shouldn't just be standing there you know, you got two—well now one— coming at you." Sharnid's voice suddenly sounded.

"That was too close for comfort now." Lyra called into her transmitter.

"Hey, hey now. A thank you wouldn't be that bad." He remarked in his usual lazy voice.

"Yeah well I could have handled that perfectly fine. I don't need you to go hitting me in the head." She replied as she looked around trying to see where the next one was going to come from.

"Aww that's not nice. We're supposed to be a team Lyra-Chan. I bet you a machine is going to come from two o'clock." He remarked. As if to answer his prediction, another robot appeared, slamming his axe down. The fake wooden axe chopped down towards Lyra's head. She took a step back and felt the passing of air at the tip of her nose.

"Great…" she groaned as she unexpectedly got herself into a fight.

"I told you so didn't I?" Sharnid remarked. Lyra grunted as she blocked the attack from the robot and ducked the other arm that came swinging at her from the side.

"Just shut up and help won't you?" she grunted as she slid back. Lyra tried to lash out at the robot, but it just moved back and retaliated swing his axe down. Lyra barely had time to move. She wasn't expecting this robot to have that long of a range. Its arms were designed to be much longer giving Lyra a disadvantage.

Just then Lyra heard a grunt, looking over Lyra saw that Nina was busy fighting another robot. From the looks of it, Nina had been fighting for a while now. Nina was panting and the robot was about to attack again. Lyra tensed, about to run towards her, but Nina then shot out a blast of kei obliterating the machine.

Lyra let out a sigh of relief. Now that Nina had won, Lyra didn't know what to do next. Should she lead the enemy to her and fight it together, knowing she couldn't block the fire from the other enemy? No, Nina would become the target of the enemy, and besides, she didn't have the confidence to work with her. Suddenly Lyra remembered what Savaris had said to her.

"When in battle, don't depend on other's strength. That'll make you weak and you won't get anywhere." Lyra couldn't depend on the captain nor Layfon. Once the captain was defeated, they'd lose the match, so she must take care not to involve her in more danger. That and, glancing towards Layfon, Lyra saw he was already dealing with two other machines. The sound of the machine she was fighting brought her attention back to see the slashing his axe horizontally.

Confusion caused Lyra's movement to slow down. She avoided the axe, but the way she did it looked so ridiculous that even she was angry about it.

She'd lost her balance. Lyra watched as the axe came swinging towards her again.

At that moment, Nina headed straight for her. Perhaps she thought she couldn't avoid the next strike. Lyra felt the same. Damn it… she groaned inwardly as she saw the attack coming.

Just then there was a bang. That was the bell signaling the end of the match rang through the air.

Lyra let out a sigh. "That wasn't that great…"

"You got that right." Sharnid's voice range through her helmet. "Nice dodge there by the way. Very… unique…" he added.

"Shut up!" Lyra's face heated up in embarrassment. She forgot the he could have seen that. Now that made it worse. On the other side, she could hear Sharnid laughing. "Honestly, you're probably a good dancer from the way you dodged. Did you make that up yourself?"

"Shut up." She growled, "At least I did more than you. You just sat up in a tree."

"I would have helped, but you guys kept blocking my view. If I tried shooting then I would have hit one of you and you did say that you didn't need my help." Sharnid replied.

"I asked for it later!" she retorted.

"Correction, you demanded for it, and by then I was busy trying to help Layfon." He replied.

Lyra just shook her head and started heading back towards the locker rooms. She glanced over at where Nina was standing, from the look on her face, she could tell she did not like how today's training went. A little off Layfon had the same face as well.

Lyra sighed standing up straight. She glanced over at where Layfon was standing awkwardly, looking at her. From his facial expression, she could tell that Nina wasn't going to be happy. This wasn't how she expected training to go.

"You're lucky the bell rang when it did." Nina remarked, looking at her.

"Heh… Yeah I guess so…" Lyra let out a nervous chuckle.

Nina shook her head disapprovingly. "Why didn't lead it towards Layfon, when you knew you were going to have trouble?" She questioned.

"Well… he was already busy with two others. I couldn't just depend on him." Lyra replied.

"Then why not lead it towards me?"

"If the captain fell then we'd have lost. So I figured that I would deal with it on my own." She explained.

Nina sighed shaking her head, "That's for me to decide."

Lyra didn't reply. She knew that was true, but the captain herself was busy with an enemy so she didn't want to add more stress for her. Plus it wasn't like Lyra couldn't handle the enemy. It was just that, she was still getting used to working in a platoon. Even though she had been part of the group for a while now, they didn't do these types of training that often because of the tight budget and when they did, it was always the same ending.

Nina then moved on to the next person. "Layfon, when you saw that you were stuck in that situation, why didn't you lead the enemy towards me?" she asked.

Layfon tensed for a second, "Well… it's like Lyra said, if you fell, then we would have lost. I could act as bait and draw the enemy out. Plus you were busy with an enemy."

Nina let out a groan, shaking her head. "You both need to stop making decisions by yourself. There's a reason why we're a platoon. Our job is to work together and I'm the captain and I make the decisions." She then turned towards Sharnid who had lifted the towel from his face, "Why didn't you cover Layfon?"

"It's not easy to avoid shooting your own teammates. Layfon needed to accurately sense the timing of my shot and move accordingly." He explained waving his hand.

"Felli, your searching speed was too slow. Can't you be faster?" Nina asked.

"That was my limit," came the monotone voice. Lyra glanced at their captain's face. She could tell that Nina was getting angry from the excuses being made.

Just then they heard a knock on the door. All of them looked up to see Harley entering the room. He stopped in his tracks when he felt the tension in the room.

"What is it?" Nina demanded glaring at him.

"Ah… um… I came to help Lyra with her setting of the Dite. Since that actually didn't break, I think I can get some detailed settings done." He explained scratching his head.

"Oh right… Hey it didn't break!" Lyra remarked looking at the Dite in her hands. Earlier that day, Harley had been saying something about after practice he would look at her Dite and based on training, he would make one that didn't break on her.

Lyra didn't get why it happened. The one she used back in Grendan never caused her trouble. Normally the reason why it broke would be because of Savaris, and him going overboard with his attacks. But even that started to lessen.

Could it be that the material the two cities used were different? Lyra wasn't sure about that answer. To her both felt the same, when she used them.

"I just said that Lyra…" Harley started with a sweat drop. He then looked at the others, "Does any else need weapon adjusting?" he asked looking at the others.

"Nope I'm good!" Sharnid replied, sitting up.

"Mine's okay." Felli shook her head.

"If there's anything, I'll let you know." Nina replied waving her hand.

"Man you're all boring…" Harley sighed. He then looked at Layfon.

"How about you Layfon?" he asked.

"No I'm good for now." Layfon replied. Harley sighed nodding his head, before he started walking around gathering his things. Lyra watched him gather his things while whistling a tune.

That's when she heard shifting. She looked to see Sharnid getting up.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Well training's finished and even if we had a meeting there wouldn't be much to talk about, so I'll go back after a shower. Got a date afterwards." He winked at her before leaving the room.

"Hey! Wait!" Nina called out to him.

"I'm leaving as well." Felli said getting up.

Lyra watched them leave, she then glanced at Layfon who seemed to be debating whether to stay or not. Lyra was about to make up a reason for him to stay, but then suddenly he made an excuse claiming to suddenly remember that he promised he'd help Naruki with a dispatch job.

Grr… stupid Layfon. Now Lyra was stuck. She would have left as well but Harley wanted to check her Dite, which could have waited until later, but of course he wanted to check it now.

With her head on her hands, Lyra watched Nina standing there. She had nothing to say to her. Her shoulders were trembling thinking of all the things she could be yelling at them about.

Lyra bit her lip. It suddenly felt awkward. She felt she needed to say something but what? Earlier that week Lyra had been the one saying that their teamwork was fine and Nina shouldn't stress over it too much, but this training had proven other wise. It wasn't that the team itself was bad, just that it lacked communications. Everyone wanted to do their own things, but no one else would understand them. A good example was when Sharnid had shot the robot that Lyra was fighting. Lyra placed a hand on top of her head. Everything was still in place, but she couldn't help but shiver at the thought of the bullet hitting her.

Just then she heard a groan. Looking up, Lyra saw Nina walking out. The irritating sound of the door closing affected the air of the room.

"It'd be good if she calmed down a bit," Harley said, smiling.

"Hm?" Lyra looked over at him.

"Seriously, Nina can act calmly, but she's impatient now. That can't be helped." He went on saying as he wrapped a wire around Lyra's Dite.

"You understand her?" She asked.

" Well kind of… We're good childhood friends." He explained.

"Oh…" Lyra nodded her head, "That explains a lot." But then her brows furrowed in confusion, "Wait, Layfon had told me that she…" She trailed off not wanting to be nosey.

"Ran away from home? Do you think she wouldn't know anybody at the place she ran away to?" Harley said cheerfully.

Lyra frowned, "Well duh… I should have guessed that." Lyra hit herself on the head.

"Don't worry about it. Can you restore your Dite now?" he asked.

Lyra nodded her head and restored her Dite. The wire around the Dite started to glow yellow, conveying its information to the machine.

She just stared at the wires, thinking. "Why did Captain want to form a platoon?"

"Do you find it hard to believe?" Harley smirked replying.

"Well… she's only a third year, isn't she? I heard that most of the platoon captains are fourth year or above. Hasn't she still got time?" she asked.

"Yeah, if you look at the study years, then there's still time," Harley nodded. "But who knows whether this city still has time." He replied, his fingers flying on the keyboard, Harley asked, "You know right? You should have heard of it from the Student President."

"Yeah… I heard." Lyra replied. During her meeting regarding her scholarship, the Student President had explained Zuellini's conditions. They really didn't have much time. She understood why Nina would want to make her own platoon. In Zuellini, every person counted. She wanted to make the city much stronger and survive because this city gave her a chance.

"He said it was to make us more alert of danger, but he did all that to increase our fighting strength." Harley explained.

"Is that really it?" Lyra asked shifting her weight onto her left foot.

Harley shrugged, "I honestly don't know, but I feel that he's not saying all of it. He's stubborn." He replied.

Lyra smirked. To think Harley would think of the president like that.

"Anyways, let's leave the Student President aside for now." Harley clapped his hands, pulling Lyra back into reality. "The time Nina spends here is important to her. You should know since you heard of her running away." He went on as he stood up and walked over to where Lyra was taking the wires off of her Dite.

"Well I got all the information I need. I'll work on seeing if there are any other options for your Dite. Till then just be careful with it."

Lyra yawned, nodding her head, "Alrighty then. If that's everything, then I'll be off." She decided.

Harley nodded his head. "See ya." He waved as she headed out the door.

Lyra let out a sigh as she now walked the streets. It was almost time for her to go to work. She needed to change and then head off to the machineries to clean.

She looked up at the sky, trying to see as far as possible.

Nina had said that she wanted to see what a majority of people couldn't see: the world outside the city. That was true though, many people didn't get to see the outside world. They only saw what was in the city.

Lyra was lucky, so far in her seventeen years; she had traveled to three cities, Zuellini being her third city. As she traveled, she saw how bare the land was. It showed no proof of life.

Most people didn't know that though. It wasn't easy traveling from city to city, most people lived their entire life, just in one city, not knowing what the rest of the world was like.

It was extremely taxing to get on a roaming bus and traveling to another city, and it was dangerous.

Lyra thought back to the letter Leerin had written. A filth monster had attacked as soon as the roaming bus departed, or so Savaris had said, but it was still believable. When Lyra was leaving her first home, the same thing had happened, though Lyra could not remember what happened to that monster. Obviously it was destroyed, but Lyra couldn't remember.

Lyra let out a sigh as she blinked a couple times looking at the street again. She was at her apartment now. When did she get here? She never realized that this was how far she had walked and it was a miracle that she didn't bump into anything either. 'Oh well… miracles do happen.' She thought to herself as she went inside and changed out of her uniform into something more casual. After brushing her hair down, she headed out again to the machineries.

Arriving there, Lyra headed over and gathered her things. She then started off for her usual spot where she and Nina would start cleaning.

Lyra hummed to herself as she moved her brush up and down cleaning off the stains. It was very important that they kept this place clean and in check. After all this was what kept the city running.

Suddenly she heard a small giggle. Lyra stopped what she was doing and looked around. She then saw a blue light zip past her.

Lyra followed the light and soon found herself face to face with a small blue-colored girl, floating right in front of her face.

"Whoa." Lyra moved back. The girl just giggled. That's when she realized.

"Well hello there." She smiled.

This was Zuellini, the Electronic Fairy of this city.

She couldn't help but think of Noemi, seeing the young girl like fairy. Only difference was that Noemi had a pink petaled dress and leaf like ears. That and there were two of them One could easily mistaken the two as flowers. Seeing Zuellini fly around reminded Lyra of the two and how they would play and sometimes get into arguments. Those arguments; however, usually lead to trouble such as filth monsters.

However, there was one thing they both had in common.

This is what they fought for.

Zuellini giggled reaching a hand out. Lyra reached forwards as well and the girl grabbed onto her finger shaking it.

Lyra smiled.

If they lost in this Military Arts Competition, the city would lose its fuel source. In other words, the city's consciousness that he came across at the Mechanical Department – that cute Electric Fairy would face its death.

What a tragic thing.

But she couldn't really feel that happening. She heard about it happening in other cities, but not the one she lived in herself.

Suddenly the place shook, causing Lyra to lose her balance.

"What the—ow!" she grunted as she fell to the floor. Zuellini let out a small noise and flew off. "Hey!" Lyra called after it.

Suddenly she heard a siren ringing. Lyra stood up brushing her clothes off. She tensed as she heard it ring. There was only one reason why it would ring like that.

Filth monsters were attacking.